Happy Harlequins

With the dark days of 7th behind me, I rocked up to a local game club to try out 8th edition with my Harlequins. I had read that they had moved up to having 4+ invulnerable saves and rules such as "instant death" and "no escape" no longer existed. I was intrigued. I wanted to start with Harlequins, too, because their model selection is nowhere as vast as the DE and Eldar range.

I won my first small point game, which was actually only the 3rd time I'd ever successfully used them anyway, but they felt so much more durable from the outset. Finally the dathedi holo-suit was allowed to confound the targeting matrices of Cegorach's enemies!

The next 4 outings provided an amazingly satisfying foot based win over a double superheavy list followed by 3 cruel losses for learning as I found out about the new intricacies of assault and the value of reserving command points for the inevitable perils check or the out of phase strike back stratagem. The losses helped me establish what was gold in the Harlequin index and how to deploy characters a little better.

Now I have won 2 games on the trot this week; one against a massive horde of orks and the other against a mech heavy SM list. I thought I'd share what has been working.

1) Harlequin Caresses- Yes, the embrace is cheaper and has better AP. But it is S4. S5 wounds a lot of things on 3, and most of the big things in 40K on a 5. The Embaraces AP-3, I found, was going to waste as the type of units that still got some form of armour save were typically rocking Inv saves that were better. Coupled with a Troupe Master nearby, everything on foot gets a Caress.

2) Starweaver transports with 5 Players and a Shadowseer- The Starweaver has proven to be remarkably resilient thanks to its Mirage Launcher. They also perform absolutely fantastic as overwatch bait. The Shadowseer, once off the transport, has shielded a lot of incoming damage. The Players, if they hit CC, just wreck EVERYTHING on the ground. Sometimes they have been too effective andleft my other units unable to pile in to a target.
I take 2 of these player and Shadowseer combos. Also, in terms of powers, smite is fantastic. I always roll for it! As awesome as Twilight Pathways appears, the 3" proximity is annoying to remember. I'd much rather roll for Mirror of Minds or Fog of Dreams. Mirror of minds did great work today getting past stormshield marines.

3) Starweaver with 5 players and Troupe master- The re-roll to wound... so, SO good!! Fusion pistol is a pretty gosh darn good choice!

4) Skyweaver with Zephyr Glaive x 6- Excellent at knocking Stormravens out of the sky and providing a hard to shift vanguard strike unit. 3 wounds, at -1 to hit, nasty!!

5) Solitaire- people know he is a beast and dedicate a lot of firepower to remove him. He is easily hidden and his blitz move is SICK!!

6) Units that have not really impressed are the voidweaver and Death Jester. The latter is saddening because DJ rocks as a mini.

7) Support units- The Harlequins quickly chew up points but lack extensive firepower. They can die easily to dedicated fire. What is good at keeping off the heat while I advance? Fliers!!
The Flier detachment provides me enough room to get 2 Razorwings and a Hemlock Wraithfighter for about 1/3 of the cost of my list. I really like the cheaper dark lances and the d-scythe is pretty wicked. Because fliers have so much manoeuvrability and shooting, they have been constantly awesome at sniping characters for heavy damage, hammering ground vehicles and pummelling enemy fliers.
Even when my ground force is decimated down to characters, after 4 turns of firepower from these fliers, there also won't be much enemy left either.

So, the theme of my force is fast and hard to hit. So far, I am really happy with how it has gone against different opponents. What's been working for you all?

Hemlocks and Harlequins. That's basically "I want to win without people blaming me for spam: the list".

Got to admit I got a surprise to see that the Hemlock rocks 12 wounds, so can be considered for kingslayer!
The FAQ also points out that flyers, without ground support units, can not be considered as units deployed on the table. Focus on shooting the heck out of the Harlequins and win the game automatically. I don't think I'll be running a 3 flyer list for much longer!

TeenageAngst wrote:

Hemlocks and Harlequins. That's basically "I want to win without people blaming me for spam: the list".

I use Bombers instead is that the same to you? or do you just have to be negative all the time?

PS: Solitaire now is <Masque> so it can get the Buffs and go in Transports now!

I've been thinking about running some Clowns to give my DE some actual melee Oomph. Assuming Shooting isn't a concern, what's the minimum I'd have to bring effective Auxiliary Support?

amishprn86 wrote:

TeenageAngst wrote:

Hemlocks and Harlequins. That's basically "I want to win without people blaming me for spam: the list".

I use Bombers instead is that the same to you? or do you just have to be negative all the time?

PS: Solitaire now is <Masque> so it can get the Buffs and go in Transports now!

I wasn't being negative. Clowns and Hemlocks is going to probably be our emerging meta after the Razorwing Flock nerf since they're so versatile.

TheBaconPope wrote:

I've been thinking about running some Clowns to give my DE some actual melee Oomph. Assuming Shooting isn't a concern, what's the minimum I'd have to bring effective Auxiliary Support?

Well depends what your want, i like troupes alot, but if you need something to sneak around the battlefield and get into melee where a unit cant fix then a solitaire.

Troupes with a Starweaver and a Troupe master for much damage, a shadowseer isnt as good with just 1 Troupe choice.

@amishprn86

I'm looking for some shock troops, as I've been...rather disappointed with some of the melee options avaliable to us.

(Archons, Khymera, Wyches, etc)

TheBaconPope wrote:

@amishprn86

I'm looking for some shock troops, as I've been...rather disappointed with some of the melee options avaliable to us.

(Archons, Khymera, Wyches, etc)

A Troupe unit with a Troupe Master, extremely effective, just take a starweaver (they are basically a better venom in everyway).

It will be 25 attacks re-rolling hits, can move+advance and charge, also advance 6's.

to keep them cheap and to kill armored infantry better take Embraces (they math hammer out better than Caress with a Troupe Master, w/o Troupe Master Caress is better, Caress is also better against T8).

Modeling question for Harlequin players if you give everyone swords from the box and want to use them as other weapons do people tend to have a problem with it? I don't like the look of the caress or embrace and really like the swords but, don't want to run into WYSIWYG problems.

No one i play with knows what a Caress, Kiss, and Embrace's are anyways.

I painted the Bases different colors, Blue = Caress, Green = Embrace, Red = Fusion+Embrace, Purple = Shadowseer and Death Jester, Black = Troupe Master and Solitaire.

I have a little playing card i give them with these colors on it. No more problems.